History of Middlesex county, Connecticut, with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Part 133

Author: Whittemore, Henry, b. 1833; Beers, J.B. & Company, publishers
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : J. B. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 818

USA > Connecticut > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex county, Connecticut, with biographical sketches of its prominent men > Part 133

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

NELSON SHEPARD.

The early settlers of East Middletown, or what is now known as Portland, were a hardy, industrious race of farmers. They felled the trees, planted the first crops, and thus prepared the way for the civilization that fol- lowed, and while many of their descendants have left the plow, and have been successful in other avocations, a few have continued to till the soil, and have demon- strated the fact, that if a man has energy, perseverance, industry, and economy he will succeed in any under- taking. To this class belongs Mr. Nelson Shepard, a descendant of one of the oldest settlers in the town of Portland.

Erastus, the father of Nelson Shepard, married Monor, daughter of Luther Goodrich, of Chatham. By her he had seven children: Emily, born 1812; Edward Ist, born 1814; Edward 2d, born 1816; Delia L., born 1818; Nelson, born 1820; Caroline, born 1822; Maria, born 1824. The first wife of Mr. Shepard died in 1832, and the same year he married Desire, daughter of Samuel Wilcox, by whom he had one child, Henry S., born Sep- tember 13th 1833.

Nelson Shepard, the subject of this sketch, was born in the town of Chatham, or what is now called Portland, on the 25th of December 1820. He attended the pub- lic school a few weeks each year; the remainder of the time was spent in working on his father's farm. When he became of age he continued to work for his father, receiving $to a month wages for eight months of the year. On the death of his father he inherited about

5.36

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.

60 acres of land. This was the only capital on which was based his subsequent success. By strict economy and hard labor he was enabled to make several improve- ments on the farm, and in :856, he built a new house on the site of the old homestead. When partly finished it took fire and burned to the ground. Instead of sitting down and mourning over his loss, he again went to work with a will and determination that surprised his neigh- bors, and he soon retrieved his losses, and distanced all his neighbors. About this time he commenced raising tobacco, which proved a very successful venture, and he has now accumulated a sufficient sum to support him in his declining years, and place him beyond the possibility of want.

He has been for six years a director in the National Bank of Portland and in the Freestone Saving Bank; is | Crosby, 2d, on the 14th of May 1880.

also a stockholder in the Middlesex Quarry Company. He has served as selectman of his town for three years, and as county commissioner for three years. He is an active member and vestryman of the Episcopal church at Glastonbury. On the 20th of November 1844, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Noah Tryon, of Glaston- bury, by whom he had five children: Gertrude Elizabeth, born May 29th 1848; Isabella Leland, born November Irth 1850; Lizzie A., born October 30th 1853, died July 7th 1856; Carrie E., born November 11th 1857, died February 7th 1870; Andrew Nelson, born May 5th 1861. Gertrude E., the eldest child, was married to Henry Corn- wall, on the 3d of November 1869 (he was a volunteer in the war of the Rebellion; enlisted in Twentieth Regi- ment, and served till close of war with honor and credit); and Isabella Leland was married to Erastus Hubbard

Over y Compary

Episcopal el urco

mber 1844, h

" of Glaston-

roveredo Henry Coru- Sle hamn May 5th iso1 Ja rith 1857, die l . la les, died July Du Bonheur November bo- Goonde Elizabeth

marcel In Erastus Hubbard d .for and credit , aile w Twentieth Regi i volumiee in

Alan Shepard

TOWN OF SAYBROOK.

BY REV. WILLIAM H. KNOUSE, Pastor of Congregational Church, Deep River.

INTRODUCTION.

T HE TOWN OF SAYBROOK, as now con- stituted, is the relatively small remnant, after successive divisions, of the ancient and much larger town, which bore the same name.

The earliest settlement in the original town was made in the extreme southeastern part, now called Saybrook Point, in November 1635.

The territory to which the name of Saybrook was given, and which was sold to the Connecticut Colony, included, until 1667, the present town of Lyme, origi- nally called East Saybrook, on the east of Connecticut River. The settlers who came with Mr. Winthrop in 1635, and those who came with Colonel Fenwick in 1639, constituted but a small body. But about 1646 the number was increased by other colonists, who came from Hartford and Windsor. From a division of lands made in 1648, there appear to have been 43 proprietors then in the town.

Among them were the ancestors of the Barkers, Bulls, Bushnells, Chapmans, Clarks, Lays, Lords, Parkers, Pratts, and Posts, as there were of the Cham- pions, Griswolds, Lees, and Wades, who settled after- ward in Lyme; and of the Backuses, Blisses, Fitches, Huntingtons, Hydes, Larrabees, Leffingwells, Masons, and Budds, who removed about 1660 from Saybrook or Lyme, and settled in Norwich. These all lived upon the Point or in its near neighborhood, as did also the ancestors, of the Chalkers and Tullys, who were very early associated with them. Among the early settlers in Saybrook Parish, after those who have been men- tioned, were the ancestors of the Waterhouses, Kirt- lands, Shipmans, Whittleseys, Willards, and Lyndes, the last three families of which came from Boston.

Of the above mentioned names of the early settlers at or near Saybrook Point, the following are now found among the inhabitants of the present town of Saybrook, viz .: Bull, Bushnell, Chapman, Clark, Lord, Parker, Pratt, Post, Shipman, and Waterhouse (or Watrous). Of the names of subsequent yet early settlers in other parts of the original town, Westbrook, Chester, and Essex, the following now occur more prominently and numerously

in this town, viz .: Bulkeley, Denison, Platts, Southworth, Spencer, and Williams.

The original town, exclusive of Lyme, which was incorporated as a separate town in 1667, extended from Long Island Sound on the south to the town of Haddam on the north, and from Connecticut River on the east to the town of Killingworth on the west, and was about eight and a half miles in length, and from five to six and a half miles in breadth, and contained, by computation, 40,000 acres. It belonged, until the incorporation of Mid- dlesex county, in 1785, to the county of New London. As already indicated, the settlement of the old town was confined chiefly to the territory adjacent to Saybrook Point. From an old record of the division of " lands that lye remote," dated January 4th 1648, it appears that 13 years after the first settlement, there were 40 propri- etors, more or less, in the town, including Lyme. The reason for this division, as stated in the town records, was that " the inhabitants settling upon a neck of land, found themselves straitened and disabled as to comfort- able subsistence." The persons chosen by the town to make the proposed division of these outlands, were: John Clark, William Hyde, William Pratt, Thomas Tracey, Matthew Griswold. The entire town was valued at £8,000.

" Having first laid out of the nearest lands of the town, a sufficient and convenient tract of land, properly to belong to those that lived in the Town Plat, for the feed of their cattle, they divided all the other lands into three parts, which were called quarters."

I. The quarter, including the land on the east side of the Great or Connecticut River, called the Black Hall Quarter, extended three miles eastward and six miles northward, and was valued at £3,500. It embraced but a small part of what is now the town of Lyme.

The lands on the west side of the river were divided into two quarters.

2. Oyster River Quarter, which, beginning at Oyster River, extended four miles westward to " Pootchaug," or "Manunkatesick," and northward seven miles and a tenth part of a mile from Prospect Hill. The line running north ward divided the Oyster River Quarter, on the east

538

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.

from Potapaug Quarter. Oyster River Quarter was estimated at £2,500, and included the present town of Westbrook, and the western portions of the present towns of Old Saybrook, Essex, Saybrook, and Chester.

3. The Potapaug Quarter (called, also, in an old record, "Eight Mile Meadow), beginning at Prospect Hill and Ferry Point on the south, extended eight miles on a line running north-northwest to the utmost bounds of the town's grant, and included most of the territory which now forms the towns of Essex, Saybrook, and Chester. It was valued at £2,000.

These quarter divisions indicate, in a general way, the directions in which the settlement of the town originally extended; that is to say, eastwardly, as early at least as 1664, across the Connecticut River, into East Saybrook or Lyme (called by the Indians Nehantic); westwardly, along " the sea," or Long Island Sound, into- Westbrook (the Indian name of which was Pochaug), which began to be settled from 1663 to 1664; and during the next 30 years, it extended gradually and sparsely over the extensive tract, which was called by the Indians Potapaug. This

statement, respecting the progress of settlement in the town, is not to be understood as implying a numerous population in any part of it. At the beginning of the 18th century, the town was but sparsely settled, especially in the portions that were remote from the few centers; and away from these, the inhabitants were more or less widely scattered. In 1756, the population, which grew mainly by natural increase, was 1,931, and in 1774, 18 years afterward, had increased to 2,637. In 1810, it was 3,996, and in 1830 it had increased to 5,018.

The original territory of the town, exclusive of Lyme, remained intact from its first settlement, in 1635, until the year 1836, when the northernmost portion was incor- porated as the town of Chester.

Then followed the incorporation, in 1840, of the south- western part, as the town of Westbrook. In 1852, a larger portion was detached, as the town of Old Saybrook, which was subsequently subdivided into the towns of Old Saybrook and Essex. Finally, in 1859, from the territory that remained after these divisions as the town of Saybrook, still another portion, known as Centerbrook, was separated, and added to the town of Essex. Pre- vious to this last division, a school district in the southern part of Chester was returned, in 1856, to Say- brook.

The original town has thus been divided since 1667 into six smaller towns, viz., Lyme, Chester, Westbrook, Old Saybrook, Essex, and Saybrook, the last named of which, as being the part from which the others voluntari - ly seceded, retains the original name of Saybrook, and by right of its name, has possession of the ancient town records.

From this point onward, therefore, this narrative will deal with matters which belong more particularly to the history of the town which now bears the name of Say- brook, making reference to such facts only of the re- moter past as may be necessary to the clearer under- standing of the history.

THE PRESENT TOWN OF SAYBROOK.

GEOGRAPHICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE.

The town of Saybrook, as now constituted, is bounded on the north by Chester, on the east by the Connecticut River, on the south by Essex and Westbrook, and on the west by Killingworth. It forms an irregular oblong, about eight miles long from east to west, and about two and a half miles wide from north to south, and contains nearly 11 square miles, or 6,920 acres. The land is gen - erally hilly, much of it rocky, and not specially fertile, and is not easily available for profitable agriculture, though the level spaces lying between the hill ridges fairly rewarded the toilsome tillage of the thrifty early settlers.

Along the Connecticut River the town is bordered by a rocky ridge, the highest point of which is Bork Hill, commonly called Book Hill .. This ridge is broken, in the southern part of the town, by a cove, anciently known as Pratt's Cove, about half a mile long, navigable only by scows, and is terminated at the north by Deep River Cove. Into this empties the only stream that runs through the town, which, though of shallow depth, is called Deep River. This stream is said to derive its waters principally from Wilcox's Pond, in the extreme northwestern part of the town, and possibly in part from Cedar Swamp, a little farther north, in Chester. Its gen- eral course is southeast, east, and northeast, making by its irregularities a length of about six miles. Its entire capacity of water power is utilized by mills and factories, of which there are not less than eight in operation.

The manufacturing village of Deep River is situated in the eastern part of the town, three-fourths of a mile from the Connecticut River, on a plain about a mile wide, which is enclosed by the ridge that skirts the river and the hills that lie farther to the west. The village is con- sequently not in sight from the river. It is the business center of the town. Here is massed the bulk of the population; here is the town hall and the principal post office; here are also the factories, banks, telegraph, and telephone offices. Its main street is a part of what was until recently the Hartford and Middlesex Turnpike, and is finely shaded with elm and maple trees. It is gener- ally considered by travelers to be, when arrayed in its summer dress, one of the most beautiful villages on the west side of Connecticut River, as it is without doubt the busiest place south of Middletown. The Deep River station of the Connecticut Valley Railroad is located at the river, where also is the landing of the Hartford and New York Steamboat Company. Four miles from Deep River, in the northwestern part of the town, is the pleas- ant hamlet of Winthrop, with its church, store, factory, saw mills, cemetery, and post office. Through Winthrop passes the old mail and passenger stage route between Chester and New Haven.

EARLY SETTLERS OF THE TOWN.

It is somewhat difficult to ascertain with certainty the names of all the earliest settlers, or to fix the date of the

539

SAYBROOK-EARLY SETTLERS.

earliest settlement. It is believed, however, that the earliest families who resided in the eastern part of the town were the Kirtlands, Lords, Pratts, Shipmans, and a little later, the Southworths and Denisons. In the west- ern part of the town the earliest settlers were the Platts, Bulkeleys, Bushnells, and Denisons, and somewhat later, the Posts. From the town records, it appears that John, Nathaniel, and Philip Kirtland were joint proprietors, in 1723, of nearly the entire plain on which the village of Deep River is located, and that their land extended to the Connecticut River. John Kirtland, in 1725, inher- ited from his father-in-law, Rev. Thomas Buckingham (who was pastor from 1670 till his death in 1709, of the first parish in Old Saybrook), 75 acres or more of land, about two miles west of the village of Deep River, near what was then known as the New Iron Mines District. His mother was Lydia, daughter of Lieut. William Pratt, one of the original settlers of Hartford and Old Say- brook. His paternal grandfather was Nathaniel Kirt- land, of Sherrington, in Buckinghamshire, England, who immigrated to America in 1635, when 19 years of age, and was a resident, in 1672, of Lyme.

Of the descendants of John Kirtland and his brothers, Nathaniel and Philip, none are now residents of this town, and their property long since passed into other hands.

Elijah Lord, the first of the name who settled in this town, about 1750, owned a farm in the southeastern part of the town. He was a son of Deacon Andrus and Hes- ter (Buckingham) Lord, of Old Saybrook, and was mar- ried to Sarah Doty, of the same place. The old home- stead, which he built, probably in 1771, is now owned and occupied by one of his descendants, William N. Lord. The Lords of this, and adjoining towns, are de-

The Lords of this town are descendants, also, by a maternal line, of the first Pratt settler, Lieut. William Pratt, through his eldest son, Ensign John Pratt.

The Pratts, who were among the earliest settlers of the eastern part of the town, were the descendants of Jede- diah, in the fifth generation, of Lieut. William Pratt .*

Jedediah, the son of Benjamin and Sarah (Meigs) Pratt was married to Anna Wolcott, about 1768, by whom he had ten children. He died in 1814 aged nearly 74 years. A pleasing exhibition of his patriotism is

*NOTE .- Lieut. Williaut Pratt was a native of the parish of Steven- age, Hertfordshire, England, and is supposed to have come with Rev. Thomas Hooker, to Newton (now Cambridge) Mass., In 1633, from thence to Hartford, Conn., in June 1636. Ho married Elizabeth, daugh- ter of John Clark, of the old parish of Saybrook. He was one of the original proprietors of Hartford, but sold his fand thero about 1615, and removed to Saybrook, In what was the Potapang Quarter, and is now the borough of Essex; his home lot and house were in the region now occupied by tho Rope-walk. He representod the town in the General Assembly continuously from 1666 to 1678. He was a large landholder in the town, and in other parts of tho Stato. He died, probably, In 1678. His eldest son, Ensign John Pratt, was also a largo landholdor in Pota- paug, and elsewhore, and was a man of some distinction. ("Pratt Family.")

given in the following notice of him by one of his de- scendants:

" During the Revolutionary war, in the years 1779- 1783, no military corps of Americans, no matter how great the number, were ever allowed to pass his house, without his stopping them, and, upon hastily constructed tables, of barrels and boards, he would empty his dairy of its pans of milk, his larder of provisions, and baking huge Johnny-cakes of Indian corn, would spread before the hungry soldiers an ample meal, while his high-sound- ing voice would bid all a hearty welcome; and his cocked hat would be seen in all directions, hurrying his servants, seeing that all had not only enough, but carried away a ration in his knapsack; and as the refreshed soldiers wound away through his extensive orchard, he would sing out a hearty wish that they would, when they met those British, give them a genuine whaling, and that he and his Queen Anne were ready to be with them at the first alarm."*

Mr. Lester Pratt, one of Jedediah's sons, was taken prisoner in the war of 1812, and confined in Dartmoor prison, until its close, when he was released, and per- mitted to return to his native land.

Dr. Ambrose Pratt, now of Chester, extensively known in Middlesex county as a skillful physician, is a grand- son of Jedediah.

Other descendants of the original colonist, Lieut. Wil- liam Pratt, through the line of his son John, who have been identified with the history of this town, are Deacon Phineas Pratt 2d, who died over 91 years of age, in 1875. Deacon Pratt was one of the earliest manufactur- ers of ivory combs in Deep River. His son, Ulysses Pratt, who died in 1881, aged 68, was for many years extensively engaged in the manufacture of ivory veneers scendants of Thomas Lord, of the ancient family of for piano fortes, and was the senior partner in the firm Laward, in England, who in 1635 came with his wife, Dorothy, to Cambridge, Mass., and soon afterward set- tled in Hartford, where he was a merchant and mill owner, and where he and his wife died.

of Pratt Brothers & Co., in Deep River. Mention may also deservedly be made of Mr. Obadiah P. Pratt, a far- mer, and universally esteemed for his moral worth and public spirit, who died in 1882, aged 66 years. Much of the land in the southeastern part of the town was oc- cupied by the Pratts.

The Shipmans, descendants of Edward Shipman, one of the original colonists in the old parish of Saybrook, have been prominently connected with the earlier and later history of this and the adjacent towns as land- owners and otherwise. Mr. Samuel M. Shipman, the present postmaster of the Deep River office, has dis- charged efficiently the duties of that position almost con- tinuously since 1861.

The very numerous family of Southworths belongs to the early history of the town. Its pedigree may be traced back to the earliest settlement of New England.

Constant Southworth, born in 1615, came to Plymouth, Mass., in 1628, became a freeman of the colony, and was married in 1637, to Elizabeth Collier, daughter of William Collier, of Duxbury, Mass. His widowed mother, Alice, who preceded him, 1623, became the wife of Governor Bradford. His youngest son, Capt. William

*(Pratt Family.)

540

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.

Southworth, settled at first at Little Compton, R. I., where probably he married his first wife, Elizabeth, by whom he had nine children. The name is not now seen in Little Compton. After this wife's death, in 1703, he was married, in 1705, to Mrs. Martha, widow of Joseph Blague, of the old parish of Saybrook, where it is pre- sumed, he settled. By the second marriage he had two sons: Gideon, born in 1707, who was an early graduate of Yale College, while it was located at Saybrook Point; and Andrew, born December 12th 1709. This younger son was the Lieut. Andrew Southworth, who settled in the parish of Pattaconk (now the town of Chester) and by his marriage, 1732, with Temperance, daughter of John and Temperance Kirtland, became the near an- cestor, through his second son, Nathan, of all the nu- merous Southworths, who now live in this town.

Contemporary, or nearly so, with the above mentioned earliest settlers of the eastern part of the town were the earliest settlers of the western part, or what is now Win- throp. Their names were Bulkeley, Bushnell, Deni- son, Jones, Platts, and Post. The Platts family of this town is ascertained to be, not of English, as com- monly supposed, but of German origin, the ancestor, Frederick Platts (or Platz), having come, with two brothers, from the Upper Rhine in Germany, and settled in Westbrook. He married a Miss Fox, of New London, formerly from England, and 'settled about 1670 in Old Killingworth, now Clinton. He had six children. Obadiah, his third son, born in 1709, was married in 1737 to Hannah Lane, of Clinton, and settled in Winthrop. He built a house not far from the residence of Mr. Alfred Platts, which has disappeared. The town records give the fact that fifteen acres of land were deeded to him by a Chapman as early as 1735. His eldest son, Daniel, is supposed to have been the first child born in that part of the town.

His third son, Noah (born in 1742 and died in 18II), built a house, either before or during the Revolu- tionary war, which is still in habitable condition, though more than a hundred years old.

In 1786, he built another house, which was occupied by his son, Col. Obadiah Platts, a commissioned officer in the war of 1812, and is now the residence of his grand- son, Mr. J. Lozel Platts, who is one of the largest farmers and landholders in the town.

The Bulkeleys are descended from Rev. Peter Bulkeley, who was born in 1583, at Odell, Bedfordshire, England, where his father, Rev. Edward Bulkeley, was minister. He received a thorough education at St. John's College at Cambridge, and succeeded to the benefice of his father in his native town. Here for about 20 years he was known as an eminent and very successful non-con- forming clergyman of the English Church. Silenced at length for non-conformity, by Archbishop Laud, he sold his large estate, and sought religious liberty in New Eng- land. Arriving in 1634 at Cambridge, Mass., he became, in 1637, the first pastor of the church of Concord, which was then but a wilderness. "Here he expended most of his estate for the benefit of his people; and after a

laborious and useful life died, March 9th 1659, in his 77th year." John Bulkeley, a great-grandson of Rev. Peter Bulkeley, and of the fourth generation, born about 1687, was married to Deborah Shipman, of Saybrook, in the then parish of Chester, and became, through his son Job (who married Dorcas Conkling) the near ancestor of the present Bulkeleys in this town. The records of Say- brook notice a deed of 50 acres of land given in 1742 to Job Bulkeley from one John Loveland.

The Denisons of this, as of neighboring towns, trace their ancestry to the original colonists, who came from England to Massachusetts about 1632, and whose descendants subsequently settled at Stonington in 1649, and at Potapaug Point (Essex) about 1690. The first of the name in Winthrop is supposed to have been John Denison, who came March 1769, and whose first wife, Lydia Pratt, was the motlier of all his children, five sons and one daughter. William Denison, his second son, was the father of Rev. William Denison and Rev. Albert Denison, well known thoughout the town and other parts of the State as estimable and successful Baptist minis- ters. Both have acceptably served in the pastorate of the Baptist church in Winthrop.

Rev. William Denison, the elder brother, now deceased was identified with his native place, not only as a pastor, but as the conductor for ten years, from 1854 to 1864, of a boarding school, called the "Winthrop Institute for Young Ladies." This modest institution, though for lack of means limited in its equipment and influence, provided, nevertheless, educational advantages which its pupils could not so easily have otherwise enjoyed.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Middlesex county, Connecticut, with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Part 133

Author: Whittemore, Henry, b. 1833; Beers, J.B. & Company, publishers Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York : J. B. Beers & co. Number of Pages: 818

Author: Whittemore, Henry, b. 1833; Beers, J.B. & Company, publishers
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : J. B. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 818